Unholy Alliance

Unholy Alliance PDF

Author: Gerald Freund

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2018-12-05

Total Pages: 551

ISBN-13: 1789126657

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Here is the first comprehensive account of the secret military and political relationship between Germany and Russia in the years after the First World War, when the seeds were sown for the second. At that time these two major powers were outcasts from the society of nations—Germany because of her defeat, Russia because of the Bolshevik Revolution. Quarantined, they sought each other’s company. Leaders in the uneasy partnership included the complex statesman Gustav Stresemann, the tragic Walter Rathenau, soon to meet an assassin’s bullet, and the unscrupulous Karl Radek, Germany had deposed her Kaiser, Russia her Czar; both countries were in social and political turmoil. In recounting the story of this relationship, Dr. Freund has had access to important unpublished material, including the archives of the German Foreign Ministry and the private papers of Stresemann and General von Seeckt. The noted historian, John W. Wheeler-Bennett, in his introduction calls Unholy Alliance “a work of significance... an important addition to the literature of this period of history...the strange and ever-fascinating story of German-Russian collaboration during the twenties.” “Mr. Freund’s able study, utilizing a number of sources not hitherto available, constitutes an up-to-date and authoritative account of a particularly absorbing period in the relations between Germany and the Soviet Union.”—George F. Kennan “I can say without hesitation that this is by far the most thorough treatment I have read of German-Russian relations.”—Alan Bullock, Oxford University

Lenin, Trotsky, Germany and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Lenin, Trotsky, Germany and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk PDF

Author: I︠U︡riĭ Felʹshtinskiĭ

Publisher: Russell Enterprises

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781936490486

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The Treaty that Ended the World Revolution. For decades, historians have been trying to understand why the "world communist revolution" that broke out in Europe in 1917-1919 in the wake of the horror of the First World War ended in defeat. The overthrow of the Russian monarchy in March 1917 and the Bolshevik coup eight months later was followed by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, a separate peace between Russia and the Central Powers, with unprecedented annexations and reparations. Vladimir Lenin called for the conclusion of a separate peace with Germany. Nikolai Bukharin called for immediate revolutionary war. Lev Trotsky adhered to a middle position, which has entered history under the slogan "neither peace nor war." What is clear is that by forming a separate peace with Germany and her allies in order to stabilize Soviet rule in Russia, Lenin's government delivered a stab in the back to the German socialist revolution. As a result, by 1919, the Soviet government, headed by Lenin, had survived in Russia, and it became the global center of the Communist International movement. Join scholar and noted Russian historian Yuri Felshtinsky as he examines existing and newly discovered source material for a fresh look at this pivotal turning point in world history.

Churchill and the Dardanelles

Churchill and the Dardanelles PDF

Author: Christopher M. Bell

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 458

ISBN-13: 019870254X

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The failure of the Allied fleet to force a passage through the Straits of the Dardanelles in 1915 drove Winston Churchill from office (First Lord of the Admiralty) in disgrace and nearly destroyed his political career. For over a century, Churchill has been both praised and condemned for his role in launching this highly controversial campaign. For some, the Dardanelles offensive was a brilliant concept that might have dramatically shortened the First World War. To many others, however, Churchill was a reckless amateur who drove his unwilling and misinformed colleagues into a venture that was doomed to fail. This book, based on exhaustive archival research, provides a detailed and authoritative account of the Gallipoli campaign's origins and execution, stripping away the layers of myth that have long surrounded these dramatic events, and showing that no simple verdict is either possible or fair. Naval historian Christopher M. Bell untangles Churchill's complicated relationship with the dynamic First Sea Lord, Admiral Jacky Fisher, and reveals for the first time the behind-the-scenes machinations that led to Churchill's removal from office, including Fisher's covert campaign to undermine support for the Dardanelles operation, and the leaks by figures in high places that fuelled a bitter press campaign to drive Churchill from power. Equal attention is also given to the perhaps even more important story of Churchill and the Dardanelles after 1915. As Bell shows, Churchill spent a good deal of time and effort in the following two decades trying to refute his critics and convince the wider public that the campaign had in fact nearly succeeded. These efforts were so successful that the legacy of the Dardanelles did not stand in the way of Churchill becoming Prime Minister in May 1940--Provided by publisher.